Brainstorm Cafe

yesterday I went looking at all the various gyms in the area. it is rather odd that with traveling so much, you tend to get ripped off with the monthly membership rates and in many spots, there is a local Klan or community that exists with the local members. you also will have a variety of different folks, styles, and performance levels – albeit – most folks are simply happy to show up, do some work and call it a day. but what if you want more? yesterday I walked into a caveman type place that would have been perfect for this switch in training I will do for a few months. I don’t need or really want any fancy frills, juice bar, and color coordinated fitness wear and the latest tech gizmos. I just need the basic equipment and a shower, if you have towel service is thrown in – bonus!

so yes, I did walk into a space that was a bit of a CrossFit meets cro-magnum athletics and thought, “this is the place!” and then in a trend, I see more and more, “do you have a shower?”

“uhm…sorry, no.” I probably have this glazed look in my eyes wondering how people don’t work hard enough to break a sweat and/or how do you go back to your work and meetings if you don’t take a shower and not smell?”

thus was the intro ramble as I get to the social injustice thoughts…

I am really not sure what is going on with the ideas of social injustice on the planet. the reality is that there will always be some sort of unfairness and imperfection in any system, simply because we are human beings – each of us has some gifts, each some flaws – thus, whatever system one is presented or living in, the reality is that it will never operate perfectly in the context of an ideal, like for example in the united stated, “all men are created equal.”

I am not sure if the founding father meant that, “ok, everyone is born and comes into the world, but as soon as the air hits your derriere in the operating room…equality stops in theory.” it is ironic in that in other parts of the world there are no nice operating rooms, the mom will work, squat down and have a baby and in many cases be right back to work a few hours later. I think Monty python covered such disparity in a movie in a scene that had the machine that goes “ping!”

the world is going more into some nationalized state, as immigration of people from a few spots is moving every other spot, I have been on all the sides of being a local, tourist, a temp worker, expat, and an immigrant. the later one is the most difficult and has proved the most challenging to me. it doesn’t matter what you know or how many things you have done, if you can’t speak the local dialect – you are screwed.

while I know there will not be any equality in many areas of the world. some have the caste system, others work with an unwritten class system, still, others work under a political ideology and/or religious/state ideology. what I always loved about the united states was that you were given a lot of freedoms in if you had a dream or an idea, you could try. that is what the united states really is about. you can take a shot and try to go for your dreams. most of the other countries on the planet do not afford this gift.

I still remember our local labor in Indonesia quitting a Walt Disney show because merchandising was beneath them. a young man sheepishly pointed to some other folks and said, “hire these people…you only need to pay them 1/20th for the hourly rate we were offering (we had no clue what labor rates were in the country) and you only had to pay that rate for a week.. yes. the 1/20th of an hour was for a week. we made a lot of hard workers very happy with their bonuses when we packed up that show.

I digress. what bothers me is that the inequality and injustice is eroding the inside of the united states. either everyone is so caught up in their own strata of surviving and seeking the shiny objects that the levels are unaware of what each level is doing. the way life is played at the top is very different than how it is played at the bottom. you can make a case for education, breeding, class, clans, sexuality, skin color, and race seeming to provide various benefits and detriments to overall living. with the internet and its early days, I thought that the players would blend better than they are.

my analogy is each group is making really nice threads with itself, but when it comes to weaving together lately, it is not a beautiful piece of fabric we are creating, rather a bit of a ball of knots amongst the various groups. I don’t think most notice the ball of knots as many are too enamored with their thread. “look how pretty I am!” and at the same time directly or indirectly looking at all the other threads and saying, “you don’t look like me…go away…but I will keep opening my mouth and saying I believe in inclusion and diversity”

what do you say to these folks when you ask, “is that just words? or do you really mean it when another thread that is different than you comes and touches you?”

that is probably the biggest issue these days. you can create an organization and systems there a lot of people follow it, yet, I wonder how many people give up a part of who they really are inside?

my life today is to take down all the barriers and boxes that I was taught and told when I was young that you needed to keep life safe and conservative. all it did was had me seemingly become several different people. there is the athletic, spiritual, business, blah blah blah parts. there was not a whole.

perhaps enough of those barriers have come down with the past 15 – 20 years of this odd walk beyond the treadmill of capitalism and shiny objects where I got honest with myself and realize a) you really don’t need much to be very happy and b) having been able to see the discrepancies in the various level of inequality on the planet, you see very clearly why the west has so many choices and shiny things, yet, isn’t all that happy and in the 3rd world, you see what they need to grow, yet, you also see people sharing more in the 3rd world with the lack of resources.

somewhere there is a better balance point for all…yet…I don’t see too many people really wanting to listen and/or change. everyone is too busy being busy. I simply ask, “doing what?”

oh yes, another point…the more the walls you do take down that guard your heart…you probably will be on the receiving end of some not so nice things. that is ok, as you learn to love your enemy. of which, that is priceless.

I better get back to the Agrowspace and Augmanity now…good ideas and pieces for solutions to some problems on the planet. have a great day.

care to join me for a coffee?

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